Confluent Champion Sergio on Engineering Customer Success

After working at Confluent for four years, Sergio Vegas has certainly learned a lot—adding to his hard, technical skills while gaining extensive experience in cross-functional collaboration and customer engagement.

Now, as a seasoned solutions engineer, Sergio is continuing to take on new challenges. Even as he learns new tech, he’s continually looking for ways to help customers imagine new data streaming use cases and have a bigger impact on his team.

Now, as a seasoned solutions engineer, Sergio is continuing to take on new challenges. Even as he learns new tech, he’s continually looking for ways to help customers imagine new data streaming use cases and have a bigger impact on his team.

Tell us a bit about the average day as a solutions engineer. What’s your favorite part of your job?

To explain what’s the best part of my job, let me first give some context. During my time as a student, I struggled a lot to find a meaning to all the “programming, software architecture, algorithms, etc..” After learning all these definitions and skills, what would my actual day-to-day job look like?

Now, as a solutions engineer, I can say that I’m using all this knowledge to solve real-world problems. Everyday, I’m interacting with customers and helping real people on their team who are building solutions with real-world impact—that can include anything from preventing fraudulent card transactions to working with local governments to improve their school canteen processes so no kid starves after a long day. 

That’s the most exciting part of helping customers maximize how they use the data streaming platform that Confluent has built. This kind of technology has the capacity to touch every part of a society, and that’s what I enjoy the most. To solve real-world problems and engage with all the smart, hard working people I meet along the way, from both customers, partners, and my Confluent team mates.

What skills or technologies have you learned since joining? And what are you looking forward to learning next?

I wasn’t really a Kafka expert when I joined. Up to that point in my career, I primarily worked among classic data and integration folk. Confluent gave me the chance to expand my career skills while also contributing to the organization with my previous experiences and knowledge.

Next, I’m definitely looking forward to learning Flink. We’re still scratching the surface of what it brings into the picture for data streaming use cases. If I want to keep making an impact in my daily work, I need to quickly get up to speed with Flink.

How have you grown or changed since joining Confluent? 

Apart from the fact that I’m older and wiser, I’ve to admit that it’s fantastic—but at the same time terrifying—how many things I’ve learned in the last four years.

Being a part of a sales team as a technical specialist, I’ve learned how to make an impact helping customers. Nowadays, I’m able to know when and where to apply my energy—figuring out when to be fired up and go the extra mile to surpass customers’ expectations. At the same time, I know when to take a step back and rethink the strategy and how to pick the right battles to win the war. 

It’s beautiful to look behind and see all the things I’ve achieved, but it’s even greater to look forward and envision all the things that we’re going too do as a team. In Confluent, there is always something brighter coming your way. Understanding the role you play in the greater organization and how to be a humble and empathetic collaborator is a huge part of our ongoing success as a team.

What's unique about Confluent's company culture?

I’d say the team mindset, the #gladtobehere mentality. Having the feeling that we’re all here to achieve something that is changing the world makes it so much easier to commit to giving your best.

What motivates you to excel in your role and how does Confluent support your ambitions? 

The fact that I’m working with extra smart and hardworking people motivates me to go the extra mile to try to contribute at least half of what my teammates and managers are doing everyday. What’s even better is that my managers aren’t just someone who oversees my work, but a true mentor who leads by example in every single aspect. This kind of environment has given me the tools and motivation I need to excel in my work.

Rapid fire questions: phrase/few words

1. What job did you want to have when you were a child? A doctor

2. What’s the best decision you made in your career? Learn English, 80% of my professional contacts are non-Spanish speakers.

3. What’s your favorite TV show set in an office? Silicon Valley

4. What’s your work-from-home must-have? A 49-inch screen

5. If you could have your team offsite anywhere in the world, where would it be? Andalucia, Spain

6. What’s your favorite way to unwind after work / on the weekends? Sparring with my Jeet Kune Do peers (yeah, you should Google it)